Silicon is beneficial to our body in a plethora of ways, including being used to make us look beautiful and youthful. It does this by making our connective tissues and bones stronger and also helps us take care of our hair, nails, and skin. It doesn’t end there, as silicon’s healthy properties also assist in preventing a variety of health problems, including atherosclerosis, insomnia, tuberculosis, and various skin disorders.

There is no shortage of silicon either, as it is the second most plentiful element that can be found in the crust of the Earth. Also, silicon is a key component in technical devices and semiconductors, hence why the hotspot for high tech companies in California is called Silicon Valley. If you want strong and flexible joints, radiating skin, and strong bones, silica is key and is actually required by the body to make all of that happen. It can be found in the body in trace amounts in silanate or silicic acid. Basically, you need silicon in your diet if you want to amplify the health benefits of vitamin D, glucosomine, and calcium.

Symptoms of Silicon Deficiency

Since many of the symptoms pertain to connective tissues, you’ll see the symptoms of silica mineral deficiency quite easily. Not only does a silicon deficiency lead to weak bones, it is also responsible for hair thinning, brittle nails, and more rapid aging of the skin including wrinkles. You can find silicon in the following easily accessible foods:

Key Sources of Silicon

How about water? Well, you’ll find more silica in hard water than you’ll find in soft water but Fuji bottled water is well known for having a silica-richness to its aquifer water.

The Various Health Benefits of Silicon

As I said before, silicon is the second most plentiful element found in our Earth’s crust. What’s the first? Oxygen. Silicon can be found in clay and sand and is also a major component of various rocks such as granite and quartz.

As everyone knows, our understanding of health is always evolving. We used to dismiss silicon as non-important due to the abundance of it in animal and plant tissues. Recent and ongoing research and clinical studies have proven the importance of silicon and the various health benefits that it has for the human body.

Prevents Bone Deformities

Various studies conducted over the years have proven silicon’s ability to majorly help calcium in growing and maintain strong joints and bones. Because silicon raises the amount of collagen (the protein element of bones), it makes the bones more flexible. Do you get injured often? Fear not, as silicon also speeds up the rate of healing for dislocations and fractures of bones. This is still under investigation and study of course, but it is notable to recognize diatomaceous earth as suitable and soluble form of silica for daily in-take.

Prevents Hair Thinning

A refined diet that doesn’t contain nutrients and especially silicon can lead to a nasty skin disease called alopecia, which is hair thinning in laymen terms. Silicon’s health-maintaining properties prompt thick and healthy hair growth. Not to mention, silicon increases your hair’s luster and thus makes your hair look shinier. We researched a popular diatomaceous organization and read what feedback they had aggregated over the years and were impressed to say the least about how many people were benefiting from the use of food grade D.E.

Keeps Your Skin Looking Radiant and Youthful

Look, nobody wants to get you’re your skin gets all wrinkly and flabby and gross. Guess what, silicon will help fight against that from happening. Various clinical studies over many years have shown that silicon plays a key role in preventing the skin from getting to that gross flabby stage. It’s also been shown to make you immune to various nasty skin disorders and it even makes your skin look more radiant. On top of all of that, silicon helps make your eyes appear brighter as well.

Helps Along the Process of Healing

Studies have shown the significance of silicon as it pertains to making you immune to serious diseases such as tuberculosis, along with other diseases that have to do with mucous membranes. I’ve said it before and I feel the need to say it again: Silicon speeds up the time needed to heal a bone fracture. This is reason enough for you accident-prone folks out there to start including more silicon in your diet. Take a look at the importance of bio silicates for human health.

Reduces Effects of Aluminum Toxicity

Various studies have illustrated the link between high amounts of aluminum in the system and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain lesions of those ailed by Alzheimer’s are found to have a higher content of aluminum. How does this all tie in with silicon? Well, scientists have found out that since silicon bonds with aluminum, the gastrointestinal tract is unable to absorb aluminum into it. This diminishes the harmful effects of aluminum toxicity.

Restores Mucosa

Silicon plays a key part in restoring the amount of mucosa in your body’s respiratory tract if you happen to be ailing from dehydration. Good for those who live in places like California where there is a drought.

Stops Your Nails from Getting Brittle: It has been shown that silicon’s role in maintain the health of your nails is actually pretty big. Silicon will keep your fingers strong and looking sexy because of its ability to shield your nails against nasty infections. On top of that it is able to improve the overall quality and health of your nails.

Assists in Strengthening Bones

Believe me, you definitely want strong bones, especially when you’re getting older. Lucky for you (and the rest of us), silicon is a key component in keeping up good skeletal health. It even increases the amounts of bone-strengthening minerals that are present in your bone tissues.

Prevents Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a nasty disease that comes about due to hard plaque forming and building up in the arteries. This build up causes normal blood circulation to be obstructed due to the combination of the plaque build-up, scar tissue, and oxidized cholesterol. According to recent studies on rabbits, silicon supplements have shown to scale down this plaque build-up and as a result, diminish the chances of developing a wide array of cardiovascular issues, such as strokes and heart attacks. Along with the aforementioned Atherosclerosis.

There you have it. Now you know all about silicon and the countless health benefits it has for the human body. Get out there and eat silicon-rich foods. Your older self will surely thank you for doing so.

In closing, not to leave you hanging we should recommend and search amazon for user reviews for both diatomaceous earth and silica supplements for personal due dilligence and feedback from previous users of food grade diatomaceous earth and organic silica.

Flexible Hydrogel Technology

Engineers from MIT have created what many consider to be a futuristic Band-Aid – an adhesive, flexible, gel-like substance that can include various forms of technology such as temperature sensors and LED lights. Along with that, this substance can include tiny canals to transport medication into the body. This technology works as follows: once a change in skin temperature is detected by the sensors, medicine will be released through the canal into the body. What about the LED lights? Well, it’s possible to make those light up when you’re running out of medicine.

You know the hassle of needing to put a bandage on a flexible area like the knee or elbow? The adhesive always seems to come off because it can’t keep up with the movement. That is a non-issue for these bandages of the future. The adhesive substance stretches with the body and keeps the attached electronics in working order.

An Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering by the name of Xuanhe Zhao is responsible for creating the hydrogel matrix that is the base of this design. This hydrogel is a rubbery substance that is almost entirely made up of water, which is intended to strongly bond itself to gold, titanium, aluminum, silicon, glass, and ceramic surfaces.

In a document distributed in the scientific journal Advanced Materials, the group documents the installation of different hardware inside of the hydrogel, for example, conductive wires, semiconductor chips, LED lights, and temperature sensors. Zhao says hardware covered in hydrogel may be utilized on the surface of the skin as well as inside the body, for instance as embedded, biocompatible glucose sensors, or even delicate, consistent brain probes.

Zhao remarked that, “Electronics are usually hard and dry, but the human body is soft and wet. These two systems have drastically different properties. If you want to put electronics in close contact with the human body for applications such as health care monitoring and drug delivery, it is highly desirable to make the electronic devices soft and stretchable to fit the environment of the human body. That’s the motivation for stretchable hydrogel electronics.”

Zhao’s document was co-authored by graduate students Shaoting Lin, Hyunwoo Yuk, German Alberto Parada, post-doctoral student Teng Zhang, Hyunwoo Koo from Samsung Display, and Cunjiang Yu from the University of Houston.

A resilient and flexible bond

Your usual common hydrogel will be very fragile, inflexible, and barely adhesive.

Zhao states that, “They’re often used as degradable biomaterials at the current stage. If you want to make an electronic device out of hydrogels, you need to think of long-term stability of the hydrogels and interfaces.”

To get over these hurdles, Zhao’s group thought of a creation method for a strong hydrogel. That method was combining water with trace amounts of selected biopolymers. When combined, a soft, flexible substance with a stiffness similar to that of human soft tissues was created. The group also concocted a way of strongly fusing the substance to different kinds of nonporous exteriors.

In the new experiment, the team applied their methods to show some of the hydrogel’s possible uses, including embodying a titanium wire to shape a straightforward, stretchable channel. In various trials, they extended the typified wire different times and doucmented that it kept up consistent electrical conductivity.
Zhao additionally made a variety of LED lights inserted in a sheet of hydrogel. At the point when appended to diverse districts of the body, the cluster kept working, notwithstanding when extended crosswise over very deformable areas like the knee and elbow.

An all-purpose matrix

In the end, the MIT team attached different types of electronic equipment to a sheet of hydrogel to create what they call a “smart wound dressing.” This dressing is comprised almost entirely of normally spaced temperature detectors and small drug canals. On top of that, Zhao’s team also created different paths for the meds to travel throughout the hydrogel. They did this by either placing patterned tubes into the hydrogel or drilling small holes into the matrix. They then put the dressing over different spots on the body and discovered that even when completely stretched, the dressing was able to keep track of skin temperature and was even able to release the meds in accordance with the sensor readings.

Yuk believes that the technology will be quickly utilized as a flexible and readily available remedy for burns and other various skin problems.

According to Yuk, “It’s a very versatile matrix. The unique capability here is, when a sensor senses something different, like an abnormal increase in temperature, the device can on demand release drugs to that specific location and select a specific drug from one of the reservoirs, which can diffuse in the hydrogel matrix for sustained release over time.”

Zhao strives to dig deeper and sees hydrogel as becoming the quintessential biocompatible vehicle for releasing technology into the body. Right now, he is looking into the potential for hydrogen to carry glucose sensors along with brain probes. Typical implanted glucose sensors trigger a foreign-body reaction from the immune system.

Once this happens, the sensors are covered with highly dense fibers, which leads to a constant need to replace them. While it is true that some other hydrogels have been utilized to cover glucose sensors and ensure that the immune response doesn’t happen, those hydrogels are weak and easily disconnect with movement. Zhao has assured us that his group is creating a hydrogel-sensor system that will be strong and in working shape for long periods. He also suggested that a likewise case could be presented for the brain probes.

“The brain is a bowl of Jell-O,” remarks Zhao. “Currently, researchers are trying different soft materials to achieve long-term biocompatibility of neural devices. With collaborators, we are proposing to use robust hydrogel as an ideal material for neural devices, because the hydrogel can be designed to possess similar mechanical and physiological properties as the brain.

The research and studies mentioned above were made possible due to funding, in part, by the Office of Naval Research, the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, and the National Science Foundation.